The Mega Millions' jackpot has reached the second highest amount in the game's history at $586 milli

(17 Dec 2013) VOICE-OVER SCRIPT: THE HUGE MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT HAS CREATED A NATION FULL OF DAYDREAMERS. SOT: (Terry Hopkins, Dallas resident) "First thing I would do? Probably pay off a lot of bills." (SOT: Dennis Void, New York resident) "First thing I would do is take care of my grandchildren. I have an eleven-year-old daughter, make sure she's set for college and everything, and make sure all of my grands(children)' college is paid for in full, and take care of family members and me and my wife will decide what we'll do from there." THE REVAMPED LOTTERY MEANS MORE NUMBERS TO CHOOSE FROM AND YOUR ODDS HAVE GONE FROM 1 IN 175 MILLION TO 1 IN 259 MILLION. (SOT: Professor Scott Norris, mathematics department, Southern Methodist University) "The probability of one ticket losing is quite close to one, the odds of winning are about one in 259 million. Uh, subtract one from that number and divide by 259 million and that's your odds of losing - almost exactly one." DESPITE THE EVEN SLIMMER CHANCES�. (SOT: Will Wong, DC resident): "Everyone says that but I figure I can't win if I don't play." PEOPLE SEEM MORE DETERMINED TO PLAY. EXACTLY WHAT LOTTERY OFFICIALS EXPECTED. (SOT: Buddy Roogow, D.C. lottery executive director): "In this game, when it reached about 250 million, sales dramatically increased, which allowed the jackpot to go up really fast. You can see the sales increasing by virtue of the fact that we keep raising the jackpot." THE JACKPOT STANDS AT LEAST 586 MILLION DOLLARS AND COULD CLIMB HIGHER BEFORE TUESDAY'S DRAWING. IT'S ALREADY THE SECOND LARGEST JACKPOT IN MEGA MILLIONS HISTORY BEHIND LAST YEAR'S WHOPPING 656 MILLION DOLLAR PRIZE. IF THERE'S NO WINNER, THE NEXT DRAWING COULD SHATTER THAT RECORD. PRIYA SRIDHAR, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...